The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POWER outages in eastern New Providence late Saturday night and early Sunday morning were caused by shorts in an underground cable, according to Bahamas Electricity Corporation Executive Chairman Leslie Miller.

Mr Miller said technicians received a call shortly before 6am on Sunday that electricity was out in some parts of eastern New Providence.

“Winton Meadows and its immediate areas were affected for a few hours but that was because of an underground cable,” he said yesterday. “But we expect for that to be fixed before the day (Sunday) is out.”

Mr Miller also stressed that the corporation is currently not load shedding.

Angry BEC customers vented their frustrations on social media yesterday with some calling for the government to focus more attention on energy reform.

One customer said: “All they want to do is go in the House of Assembly and argue with each other. They need to be arguing about how to fix these generators and get some solar panels instead of the foolishness they always running on with.”

Another person said: “Seriously, it is not even a joke anymore. I do not remember a time in recent years when there have been this many power outages and the excuses are getting tired and old just like BEC’s generators.”

Last week, residents of four settlements on Andros suffered without electricity for nearly 15 and a half hours before power was restored.

BEC spokesperson Arnette Wilson-Ingraham confirmed that power for four areas of Andros – Congo Town, Duncombe Corpus, Long Bay Cays and Drake’s Hill – was out from 9pm Wednesday until 11am Thursday.

She said power was briefly restored for half an hour to areas north of the airport in South Andros, but quickly went off at around 11:30am. She said BEC officials were not able to rectify the problem until 6pm Thursday when power was fully restored to the island.

She did not mention anything with regard to power outages in Abaco over the weekend - with some people suffering power outages for up to ten hours on Saturday.

BEC has grappled with a series of power outages this year. On July 3, residents in New Providence were plunged into total darkness due to an island wide blackout that lasted for nearly 12 hours.

Last week, Mrs Wilson-Ingraham said the company is currently “doing its best” to maintain electricity supply to the country with “an aging fleet of engines”.